Hon. Supreme Court intervenes on charging Transaction Fee

On a petition filed by one Mr. TGN Kumar against imposing extra charges on air travelers the bench consisting of Justices DK Jain and Madan B Lokur of the Hon. Supreme Court of India has converted the petition into a Public Interest Litigation.

The Hon. Supreme Court of India has extended the scope of the petition to cover all charges levied on air travelers and asked FIA to explain the break-up of their tariff structures and its various components.

The DGCA was asked to explain whether it had taken any action against any airline for violating their tariff bands. The Court also asked the Regulator to file all circulars and orders issued to airlines on tariff fixation and collection of other charges from passengers.

The DGCA was also asked to clarify as to whether other charges could be recovered from passengers in addition to the base price and whether they were already included.

IAAI is very happy to inform that the Division Bench of the Hon. Supreme Court has today passed Directions / Orders as follows after seeking clarifications from DGCA and perusing its various Orders on charging of Transaction Fee.

“Airlines cannot collect transaction fee from the passenger. Passenger fee is being collected by the Airlines towards Commission to Travel Agents.

Hon. Supreme Court says that the Transaction Fee should not be collected in any form or under different names”

At this juncture, we are glad to bring to the notice of our members that IAAI was mainly instrumental in DGCA issuing its landmark Order dated 5th March 2010 in declaring that the charging of Transaction Fee or any other charge is not as per the Indian Law.

IAAI is keeping abreast of the developments on this subject.

We shall keep you posted with further updates.